How to make grungy/macabre photos using photoshop cs6

Introduction

Ever wanted to give your photos that grungy/macabre feel? In this tutorial I'll show you how to make your photos look grungy and macabre using Photoshop CS6.

Tutorial Requirement

What you'll need for this tutorial is

1. A photo to give that grungy and macabre feel


2. photoshop cs6

Here's what you need to do

1. Open your photo in Photoshop CS6


2. make two duplicates from your photo


3. set the first duplicate's blend mode to hard light


4. set the second duplicate's blend mode to hard light and apply the high pass filter at 20.5px


5. make a new layer apply a gradient of varying browns and set it's blend mode to overlay


6. apply the Add Noise filter at 30px and a 2px Gaussian Blur

That's how you make your photo look grungy. To add that macabre feel

1. with the background layer selected, make nineteen new layer


2. set the first two layer's blend modes to hue with the colors red and black respectively


3. set the next two layer's blend modes to overlay with the colors red and black


4. set the next fourteen layer's blend modes to soft light with seven layers colored red and seven layers colored black


5. then set the last layer's blend mode to multiply with the color red

That's how to combine the two techniques I wanted to try out. One based on a tutorial on how to non-destructively use filters and blending modes along with a gradient to make your photos look grungy and a technique I came up with in Visual Media while designing a portfolio.